[The Urban Sombrero]

Staying with the knowledge angle as that applies to the founders. The Scriptures in our day are far better understood in every conceivable application than at the time of the founders. The average preacher today has a virtual library of Alexandria at his fingertips. All manner of spiritual works, that and centralized compilations amassed at the colleges and seminaries, which give context. Along with Hebrew Greek customs and secular history of the day, allow both the New and Old Testaments to be much more deeply understood by a far greater number of people.

That is not to say they were wrong. Just saying it would have been the rarity rather than the norm, to sit under the teaching of a great preacher/teacher.

Ancient Mesoptamia is interesting and relevant, given the chaos in Iraq and Syria, and still simmering unrest in Egypt. However, an Iran with a nuclear arsenal still looms as perhaps THE game changer in the region, and I don't see, in the long run of twenty, thirty, fifty years (no matter the negotiations) that much can be done to stop it.